Lobbyists shape US Senate immigration battle

PHOENIX, June 8 (Reuters) As US senators spar over a White House-backed plan to revamp immigration laws, much of the battle has been waged behind the scenes by two very different groups of lobbyists, analysts say.

The bill, backed by President George W. Bush and a bipartisan group of lawmakers, ties tough border security and workplace enforcement measures to a guest-worker program and a plan to legalize an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.

The proposal, which yesterday fell 27 votes short of what was needed to move the bill toward a final vote, has split lawmakers and divided public opinion across the United States.

The measure is backed by a broad coalition of interests that embrace Hispanic activists, regional chambers of commerce, immigration lawyers and hundreds of employers nationwide.

The proposal is bitterly opposed by smaller, very vocal groups ranging from civilian border patrol activists to talk show radio hosts shouting down the plan on syndicated shows.

''It's like the elephant and the grasshopper,'' said Steven Camarota, the research director of the pro-enforcement Center for Immigration Studies think tank.

''The number of paid lobbyists who are in favor of this bill is so enormous, whereas the number who oppose it is very modest in size ... although they are very vocal,'' he added.

Among supporters now pitching for reform is a recently emerged coalition of employers from 11 states that has written letters, held summits and run television advertisements documenting the impact of immigrant labor shortages on farm, construction and service industries.

Tamar Jacoby, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute think tank and a consultant to the groups, said their vivid testimony has resonated with lawmakers more used to polished presentations by paid lobbyists from a maze of central Washington streets named for the letters of the alphabet.

''A guy from K Street in a suit coming into the office of a member of Congress, and then the guy from their district who has been creating jobs there for maybe 20 years ... has a very different kind of effect ... they are listened to in a totally different way,'' she added.

NO AMNESTY Among foes of the proposal are groups of Minutemen civilian border patrol volunteers who lobby both in Washington and nationally against what they say is an ''amnesty'' for undocumented immigrants, with a barrage of e-mails, calls and faxes to senators.

Other opponents include the ''Send-A Brick'' project, which urges activists to mail bricks to lawmakers to highlight what they see as a need to secure the porous Mexico border before taking steps to legalize undocumented immigrants.

Thwarting the bill has also become a signature issue among talk radio hosts, where conservatives like Michael Savage, Rush Limbaugh and Lars Larsen fire up opposition over the airwaves in shows heard by millions of listeners.

''None of these groups have sophisticated lobbying operations ...

or big money behind them,'' said Camarota.

''What they do have is a very frustrated public (who sense) that something is terribly wrong with granting legal status to illegal aliens,'' he added.

As the fate of the bill hangs in the balance on Thursday, lobbyists believe it is a crunch moment in which lawmakers will have to decide where their true constituency lies.

''We are going to see in the next few days who the folks in Washington really believe they represent,'' said Ira Mehlman, the media director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform pro-enforcement lobby group.

''Business groups or the American public who wants them to enforce the law.'' REUTERS JK PM0420